The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering at NIH will convene science and medical experts from academia, industry, and government at a workshop on Artificial Intelligence in Medical Imaging.

Researchers have developed a virtual reality simulator with life-like avatars to help train surgical teams. The simulator includes an operating room fire, something that happens to about 600 patients each year. Read more at Times Union...

Shape Memory Medical recently announced FDA clearance for U.S. marketing of their IMPEDE Embolization Plug, a technology funded by the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering and created to block irregular blood vessels.

University of Kansas researchers with NIBIB funding have developed a microfluidic device to diagnose and monitor multiple myeloma. The low-cost, reusable system uses a few drops of blood to obtain results that would otherwise require a painful bone marrow extraction.

A team of engineers has developed a prototype bandage designed to actively monitor the condition of chronic wounds and deliver appropriate drug treatments to improve the chances of healing. While the lab-tested bandages remain to be assessed in a clinical context, the research is aimed at transforming bandaging from a traditionally passive treatment into a more active paradigm to address a persistent and difficult medical challenge. Read more from TuftsNow.

Brain activity is driven by encounters with external stimuli and situations, simultaneously occurring with internal mental processes. A team of researchers from Stanford University, with funding from the NIH BRAIN Initiative, in part through NIBIB, has discovered how the brain dynamically handles cognitive tasks while it also is engaged in internal mental processes.

A research team with funding from NIBIB has developed an advanced computing technique for rapidly and cost effectively improving the quality of biomedical imaging. The technology, called AUTOMAP finds the best computational strategies to produce clear, accurate images for various types of medical scans.

For decades, scientists hoping to understand how the retina interprets visual input have often had to resort to invasive techniques to dissect the retina from the animal in an effort to record the cells' activity, but a new system could make it possible to track the firing patterns of dozens of cells chronically in awake animals. Read more at Smithsonian.com.

The mission of the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (NIBIB) is to improve health by leading the development and accelerating the application of biomedical technologies. The Institute is committed to integrating the physical and engineering sciences with the life sciences to advance basic research and medical care.